How social media’s audience affects news
When you think of different social media, you may think of the content they put out. For example, when you think of the word and outlet “TikTok”, what comes to mind? For me, it's all about Gen Z and memes, not really so much a place I look to first for news. When I think of Facebook, I think of most people older than I (a 22-year-old) using it. Instagram, I think of right in between.
Different social media in my opinion affect the content coming out of different brands. For example, as I have been tracking three different brands, NatGeo, Vice, and Dailymail, I have also been tracking how they use social media. I have noticed a couple of patterns and trends that I found interesting.
In Instagram, NatGeo focused on the work of their photographers. Many photos give credits to the artist and many contain a statement about the photo that tells even more of a story. Not as much news. On IGTV it is more informational and branches out to topics such as photography tricks, space, and even Gordon Ramsay. Vice focuses on BIG captions, to capture attention and Bold photos. Dailymail is very similar to Vice with the big captions, however not as bold intriguing photos.
On TikTok, NatGeo focused on just getting straight shots, no clickbait or anything. Vice focuses last more on clickbait. Gives more pop culture entertainment. Dailymail goes very much into TikTok trends and caters to a TikTok audience. Has more “meme” looking posts. I think this is a good tactic because it's not too cheesy and exaggerated like Vice.
On Facebook, NatGeo shows a lot more traditional news, such as information regarding the border crisis and coronavirus. Vice shows a lot more about culture, soft news. Finally, Dailymail gives no clickbait, shows a lot more hard news.
From all this information, I can only assume that these different brands are catering toward the target audiences corresponding to each social media app. I believe they are actually all quite effective in delivering the content and their message across to each of their audiences on all platforms.